The Pearl Society FinchTranslated with
permission from "Onze Vogels", Sept. 2000, pg. 383, the bulletin of the
Nederlandse Bond van Vogelliefhebbers. We cannot be too overly pleased with the amount of
color mutations in the Society Finch nowadays.After decades of breeding with the almost classic
mutations chestnut, red brown and white, only two mutations have been added
in the eighties, namely the gray and the ino. These new mutations gave
breeders of society finches a new boost. The fact that those mutations appeared in Belgium
and Denmark resulted in other mutations that were enriching to the variety
of the Society Finch. In the gray series the black gray, chestnut gray and
red gray originated. In the ino mutation, breeders made the ino crème and
the ino gray possible. Furthermore the dilute chestnut gray and dilute red
gray appeared true gains that were real assets to the Society Finch
population. Also breeding the clearwings, especially with the Red Gray
Society Finch proved to be a real challenge. The number of Society Finch
fanciers has increased significantly since the early 80's, especially as a
result of the increased varieties. The possibility for creating more mutations with
the Society Finch seemed to be limited, looking at the existing theories
about feather and color structure. Until a photo appeared on the Internet of
two birds that looked like Society Finches. The photo was sent to Fred
Panjer by an American bird fancier with the question if this mutation was
also known in The Netherlands. The photo came from Japan and was called
"pearl" mutation. The birds had a light gray cap, wings and tail and a warm
chestnut color on the back, breast and belly. Curiosity was awakened and
through contact with a (true) Japanese Society Finch breeder from Tokyo more
information was obtained. The mutation appears to be enormously popular in
Japan. This bird is known as a "pearl", because of the pearled throat and
breast and because of the light pearl gray color that is caused by the
mutation.There are many stories about the origin of this
mutation. According to information from Japan the first mutation appeared in
1982 by Isao Sekita. He discovered a young bird with silver colored wings
amongst his dark brown Society Finches. There was also silver colored
feathers on the body. This bird was paired to one of the parents and from
this, more birds that showed the same mutation were produced. These birds
were bred amongst each other and in 1985 the pearl, as it is now known, was
created. From a different source this story changes a bit, by telling that
Mr. Ikuina had discovered the mutation and that he developed it further
together with Mr. Isao Sekita. Yet another source tells that the first pearl
was discovered in a bird shop in Tokyo in the early 80's. Mr. Osamu Tamura
had supposedly bought the pied bird and for years he tried to develop the
mutation as a one colored bird on his own. In 1998 Osamu Tamura sent a
number of these pearls to American Society Finch fanciers, these were the
first pearls to leave Japan. The first pearls came to Europe in 1999. After
exchanging several letters back and forth between Fred Panjer and the
Japanse breeder Koichiro Washio, a case with several of the birds arrived at
Schiphol Airport in June. These birds have noticeably lighter caps,
especially the top of the head is a very light gray. Also the shoulders show
light gray feathering, while the wing feathers and the tail have a distinct
gray color. In combination with the warm chestnut gray color of the rest of
the body, this makes for an exquisite looking bird with beautiful rich
color. Fred Panjer started breeding with these birds, the colors and marking
patterns belong to the pearl mutation in black brown. Even though some
people, particularly Osamu Tamura are of the opinion that this mutation is
only appealing in black (dark) brown, the combination with black gray also
produces a bird that is definitely worthwhile.At first sight, the "pearl" mutation seems to have
a strong reduction in the black eumelanine, or even more realistic, appears
to transform this into a more silver colored pigment. In any case, it is a
different procedure from the way the black eumelanine is being transformed
with the chestnut brown mutation of the bird. It seems to make sense to do
some investigation to check if there is also a change in the structure of
the feathers of this mutation. Besides, it seems that in some feathers as if
the pigment has been deposited intermittently, and therefore it gives a
speckled or spotted appearance. If the transformation of black eumelanine in
the parent birds happens in such a way that it is concentrated in certain
places, then those places will become lighter and this process creates birds
that are rich in contrast. In combination with birds in which the black
eumelanine is more evenly deposited, such as by our black browns and black
grays, more uniformly colored birds may be expected.Also in Japan the combination with black-gray,
there named "pearl-gray" has gained popularity. These birds generally show a
more uniform color. It was in 1997 that, according to Japanese standards,
the perfect "pearl-gray" was bred after several breeding cycles. These birds
glisten over their entire body in a silvery color that mostly resembles
aluminum foil. The color markings of the "pearl-gray" show many similarities
with the opal factor. Even though the birds are light in color, there seems
to be a much larger concentration of pigment grains on the underside of the
feathers. The deeper color is, so to speak, translucently covered by the
light gray top upper part of the feathers. The young "pearl-grays" also have
a darker skin color. The considerably lighter reduction can be seen on the
wing feathers in the nest as the lighter wing feathers grow out of the
darker colored wing skin. The Japanese breeders are still working on
improving the appearance of the birds. According to them the difference in
sex is quite obvious with the "pearl"-mutation. The hens are uniform in
color, the cocks show more contrast. This seems to be the case with the
clearwing mutation, where the difference in sex is also quite
distinguishable in most birds. It is also remarkable that in these birds the
dark shafts of the feathers come back in a much-reduced color after the
first molt. The better young already have light gray shafts when they are
still in the nest. In Japan the letters A, B or C classify the quality of
the birds. The birds in the A category are the best and the birds in the C
category are the lowest class. The birds that came to our country in June
1999 come from the Japanese breeders Eichi Konishi, Chyuzi Torizuka and
Koichiro Washio. The young from these birds still show a large variation in
color depth and contrast. In addition to that, the birds are not pure enough
to use for breeding, therefore there are different colors appearing in the
nests amongst those birds. The results of pairings with the Dutch full color
birds were immediately noticeable. The pairing of a pearl cock with a black
brown hen gave a nest of pearl and dark brown young right away. Without
exception the dark brown young were all cocks, while the pearls were all
hens. The pairing of a black gray cock with a pearl gray hen gave only black
gray young, cocks as well as hens. These results point to a sex-linked
recessive mutation compared to the wild form. The pairing of a light
pearl-gray cock with a pure black gray hen gave very light pearl-gray hens
immediately. These birds are so light in color that they appear to be
dilutes, but since there is no dilute factor in the black gray mother, this
cannot be the case. The conclusion is that the pearl mutation is able to
cause a very strong reduction in color.For the technical committee of the J.M.C., it will
be a beautiful but difficult challenge (task) to describe this mutation in a
standard. The Japanese, contrast rich bird is certainly a great asset to the
color spectrum of our finches, as you can see in the enclosed pictures. The
typical marking pattern with the hallmark silver gray head, wings and tail,
in combination with the warm chestnut brown body and the pearled cheeks,
throat, and chest, will certainly be worthwhile to standardize. Also in
combination with gray, these birds seem to be a welcome addition to the
society finch family. A more evenly colored variety in the gray series would
probably also make a worthwhile addition. The combination with our evenly
colored standard birds assures that the mutation takes place more evenly
over the entire bird; the result of which can be seen in the photos. In the
brown series, the breeding of evenly colored birds will be more difficult.
The gray accents in the head feathers and wing and tail feathers will have a
negative effect on the evenness of the color, certainly after the first big
molt. Some years of experimenting are necessary to find out which
possibilities the pearl mutation has to offer. In these experiments we have
to be extremely careful with the characteristic appearance of the bird that
came from Japan. If we loose this mutation through careless breeding, we
will not be able to get it back easily and trying to get new Japanese
“blood” is so costly, it won't happen so quickly again. However, the
mutation should be tried for other variations. The results of which should
be expected to teach us more about the new mutation, but also give us more
information about the feather structure and color formation of the
well-known mutations.The first pearled Society Finch was shown by Fred
Panjer during Vogel 2000 in Apeldoorn as the European debut. Also at the
impending anniversary exhibit from the JMC, the organization for Society
Finches and other Lonchura's, different variations of this new mutation will
be shown. Note the date and place of this show in your agenda. On Saturday
afternoon on September 30, 2000 from 14 -17 hr. in the club building of the
Soester Birdlovers "Birdsong" Parallelweg 7b in Soest, you are cordially
welcome. Also from other countries a lot of interest is shown for this
exhibition. At this show all mutations of the Society finch
can be admired and there will also be many kinds of nuns, munias and
mannikins. There will also be a sales booth for the purchase of the 25th
year JMC anniversary book that contains, among other things, photos,
descriptions and marking patterns of other society finch mutations. (See the
book review "Onze Vogels" April 2000 Pg. 157)